"Craig Shaw Gardner - Arabian 1 - The Other Sindbad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

But I do not complain!"

Another brief interlude of oody-oodys, and I was on to the third verse:

"The riches I carry aren't for me.
In sunshine and in rain,
And my employers never tip.
But I do not complain!"

"Oh, don't you?" a high voice piped up from somewhere around the
region of my navel. I looked down, being careful not to strangle on the
ornate wrought-iron workmanship surrounding my head, and saw a
child, but what a child. Even though he was most likely a servant of
some sort, he wore a tunic, leggings, and turban of almost midnight
blue, and had eight rings upon his fingers, each golden circle set with a
semiprecious stone.

"I beg your pardon if I have offended-" I began, rather shocked by this
intrusion upon my placid songsmanship.

"What I think doesn't matter around here," the child replied with
admirable frankness. "It's what the master wants that's important, and
he wants the singer."

"Me?" I asked, still frankly astonished to think so well dressed a
servant would even address a personage as humble as myself.

The child suppressed a yawn. "It was you doing the singing out here,
wasn't it? Or did I hear a nightingale strangling?"

Here, the child was comparing me to a nightingale! "And he wants to
see me for my poor singing?" I asked humbly.

"There is no accounting for my master's tastes," the child agreed
solemnly. "Still, he has bade you enter. Would you deny his request?"

I have learned, through my many years in Baghdad, that such a polite
inquiry may often be followed by a more forceful form of request,
perhaps accompanied by burly slaves sporting sharpened scimitars.
Keeping this in mind, I readily agreed.

"But," I still added cautiously, "my song was not yet finished."

"Yes, yes," the child replied with what appeared to be growing
impatience. "You hadn't gotten to the all-important, final, inspirational
verse, where you talk about all these other people who might complain,
but not someone like you who has such tremendous respect for the
Almighty."

The child's perception was astonishing. "How did you know?" I asked